A study on perception on Covid- 19 vaccination among general public

 

Habibunisha H1, Vadivazhgan Alias Rathinam1, Nivethitha K2

1M.Sc. Nursing Student, Dept. of MSN, College of Nursing, Mother Theresa Post Graduate and Research Institute of Health Sciences, Puducherry, India.

2M.Sc. Nursing Student, Dept. of MSN, College of Nursing, Mother Theresa Post Graduate and Research Institute of Health Sciences, Puducherry, India.

3Associate Professor, Dept. of MSN, College of Nursing, Mother Theresa Post Graduate and Research institute of Health Sciences, Puducherry, India.

*Corresponding Author Email: nivi.mahi2002@gmail.com

 

 

ABSTRACT:

Background: The SARS COVID-19 is a highly transmittable and pathogenic viral infection caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2. Developing an effective and safe COVID-19 vaccine is global public health vitality in constraining the pandemic. Aim: This study was aimed to assess the level of perception towards COVID-19 Vaccination among public and to associate the level of perception towards COVID-19 vaccination with selected demographic variables. Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among general public in selected areas. Sample size was 50 selected through snowball sampling technique was used. Data was collected using modified rating scale questionnaire. Results: The study results showed that the mean perception score was 58.7 and standard deviation perception score was 8.579. Among 50 subjects 24 (48%) subjects had favorable perception, 23 (46%) subjects had neutral perception and 3 (6%) subjects had unfavorable perception towards COVID-19 Vaccination among public. Conclusion: The study result predicated that there was no significant association (p>0.05) with demographic variables such as age, sex, educational status, occupation, income. Majority of the subjects 24 48%) had favorable perception towards COVID-19 Vaccination.

 

KEYWORDS: Corona Virus, Covid 19, vaccination and Perception.

 

INTRODUCTION:

COVID 19 is a contagious disease defined as illness caused by a novel Coronovirus 2 (SARS – COV- 2) called severe acute respiratory syndrome. It was first identified in Wuhan city, Hubei Province, China and followed by there was a very huge outbreak1. Though it was reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) on December 31, 2019, On January 30, 2020 only the WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak as global health emergency 2. The principal mode of transmission of COVID-19 is exposure to respiratory droplets carrying infectious virus, shaking hands, during coughing, sneezing and talking3. On March 11, 2020 World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic 4. Clinical manifestations of COVID-19 have ranged from asymptomatic / mild symptoms to severe illness 5.

 

Common symptoms are such as fever, cough, cold and shortness of breath. Symptoms may develop 2 days to 2 weeks after exposure to the virus. The following symptoms may indicate COVID-19 such as fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, loss of smell, loss of taste, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea and it may vary individual o individual 6. Initially they were treated with antipyretics, analgesics, antiemetic and antihistamines. As of October 22, 2020 remdesivir, an antiviral agent, is the only drug fully approved for treatment of COVID-19 7. There are many preventive measures are been practiced for COVID-19 such as Wearing mask, maintaining social distancing and frequent hand washing. After many investigations, WHO suggested that vaccine is also one of the preventive measures for COVID-19, so every country made a protocol that vaccination is mandatory for their citizen to protect them from the dreadful disease.

 

A remarkable effort has been made in the eleven months since discovering the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its genome. The scientific community has contributed to the creation of more than 300 vaccine projects. More than 40 new vaccines are currently undergoing clinical evaluation; a few of them obtained the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) and are now used in many countries 8. There are many contributing factors for the public acceptance of vaccines including concerns about safety and efficacy. Along with there was a spread of misinformation which is particularly rampant in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic 9. Lessons learned from the previous pandemics of influenza when the vaccine was introduced and acceptance rate was variably low in many countries urges proper understanding of the vaccine hesitancy problem 8. During this crisis situation, there are mainly two possible methods can prevent spread of infection one is double masking and another one is vaccination. Though there are lots of experiments and evidences put forth into the sight of public that the vaccine could prevent further transmission of the diseases and its complication, still the percentage of vaccination is very low in India. There are many factors are been said by many people for not being vaccinated and the social media has vital role in spreading the information which has both positive and negative effects in the present scenario. When it is applied to the Covid vaccination, there are lots of Myths outspread in the society in which negativity are outweighed. Though the repeated outbreak of disease turnout the people to think in positively to some extent, still in some places they are not willing to have vaccination because of the negative thoughts and also side effects. Hence the researcher is interested to assess the perception about COVID-19 vaccination.

 

PROBLEM STATEMENT:

A descriptive study to assess the perception on Covid-  19 vaccination among general public in Puducherry.

 

OBJECTIVES:

1.       To assess the level of perception of Covid- 19 vaccination among general public.

2.       To associate the level of perception of Covid – 19 vaccination with selected demographic variables.

 

METHODOLOGY:

Quantitative research approach and descriptive cross- sectional design were selected for this study. A total of 50 samples were selected by using snowball sampling technique that fulfils the inclusion criteria such as those who are available at the time of data collection, willing to participate in this study. The tool consists of section A (demographic variables) and section B are categorized under four main headings such as importance of Covid vaccine, efficiencies of Covid vaccine, insight barriers and Covid vaccine receiving fear. Both inferential and descriptive statistics were used in this study.

 

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:

Table 1 describes the result showed that regarding demographic variable of the public, there are 40 (80%) subjects were in the age group of 20-29yrs, 6 (12%) subjects were aged between 30-39yrs, only one subject (2%) were in the age group of 50-59yrs.Then on gender, majority of the subjects 35 (70%) were female and few of the subjects 15 (30%) were male. Then related to previous exposure to COVID-19 infection, majority of them 31 (62%) were exposed to COVID-19 and some of the subjects 19 (38%) were not exposed to COVID-19. Nearly half of the samples are not vaccinated.

 

Table 1 Frequency and distribution of demographic variables

S.

No

Demographic variables

Frequency (n)

Percentage (%)

1.

Age

 

 

 

20 – 29

40

80

 

30-39

6

12

 

40 – 49

3

6

 

50-59

1

2

2.

Gender

 

 

 

Male

15

30

 

Female

35

70

3.

Educational status

 

 

 

High school

1

2

 

Higher secondary school

1

2

 

Diploma

3

6

 

Undergraduate

36

72

 

Postgraduate

9

18

4.

Occupational status

 

 

 

Business

2

4

 

Homemaker

7

14

 

Driver

1

2

 

Farmer

1

2

 

Professional

34

68

 

Teacher

1

2

 

Unemployed

4

8

5.

Socioeconomic status

 

 

 

Upper class

4

8

 

Upper middle class

4

8

 

Middle class

30

60

 

Lower middle class

12

14

 

Lower class

-

-

 

6.

Total family income per year

 

 

 

 

More than Rs.199,862

10

20

 

 

Rs.99,931- Rs.199,861

12

24

 

 

Rs.74,756 - Rs.99,930

6

12

 

 

Rs.49,962 - Rs.74,755

2

4

 

 

Rs.29,973 – Rs.49,961

5

10

 

 

Rs.10,002 – Rs.29,972

13

26

 

 

Less than Rs.10,001

2

4

 

7.

Area of residence

 

 

 

 

Rural

17

34

 

 

Urban

33

66

 

8.

Previously exposed to Covid -19 infection

 

 

 

 

Yes

19

38

 

 

No

31

62

 

9.

Recently any close contact with Covid -19 person

 

 

 

 

Yes

24

48

 

 

No

26

52

 

10.

Available of Covid vaccine in community

 

 

 

 

Yes

49

98

 

 

No

1

2

 

11.

Completed Covid vaccination

 

 

 

 

Yes

27

54

 

 

No

23

46

 

The first objective of the study is to assess the level of perception regarding COVID-19 among general public. There are 24 (48%) subjects had favorable perception, around 23 (46%) subjects had neutral perception and The second objective of the study is to associate the level of perception with selected demographic variables. The researcher used Chi-Square test to analyze the data to find out the association between demographic variables and the level of perception by using, but it was found that there was no association between these variables. A study conducted by Enitan SS, et.al (2020) study was conducted in Nigeria to assess the knowledge, perception and readiness to participate in the COVID-19 vaccine trial. Cross sectional, web-based design was used. The result revealed that the age, gender, educational level, religion, occupation and nature of monthly income had no significant impact (p>0.05) on the perception and readiness 12.

 

CONCLUSION:

The investigators thank all the participants. Many people are coming forward for the vaccination especially after the second wave of Covid 19 which has created major threat over the society. But still lots of people are not able to decide due to the misinformation. So there is need for arranging health education programs and counseling too. Hence this study can give insight for forthcoming studies.

 

CONFLICT OF INTEREST:

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest very few subjects 3 (6%) had unfavorable perception towards COVID-19 vaccination among public. There was also calculated mean perception and it is found as 58.7 with SD of 8.579 which is described in Table 2.

 

Surprisingly half of the subjects had developed positive perception towards vaccination and it was also identified that there was equal number of the subjects are not able to decide neither good nor bad. It might be the myths outspread even before the vaccination is launched and declared by the Government. This might be because of acceptance of misguided information regarding Covid vaccination is likely to create hesitancy towards vaccination since there are lot skeptics about Covid vaccine which can affect vaccination by spreading speculations10.

 

Table 2: The Mean perception of COVID-19 among public

S.

No.

Perception

Freque ncy (n)

Perce ntage

(%)

Mean, Standard deviation (S.D), Standard error of

the mean (SEM)

1.

Favorable perception

24

48

 

Mean = 58.7,

S.D = 8.579,

SEM = 1.2257

2.

Neutral perception

23

46

3.

Unfavorable perception

3

6

 

A study conducted by Islam MS; et.al (2021) study was conducted in Bangladesh to investigate community knowledge, attitudes and perceptions towards COVID- 19 Vaccination revealed that inadequate knowledge but more positive perception towards COVID-19 vaccine among the general public 11. Related to the publication of this article.

 

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3.        Transmission of SARS-COv 2. WHO. Available from https://who.com. Accessed: May 26, 2021.

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5.        CDC.2019 Novel Coronovirus; symptoms, CDC. Available from https://www.cdc.gov/coronovirus/2019. Accessed: June1, 2021.

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9.        Bartosz Szmyd, Filip Franciszek Karuga, Adrian Bartoszek, Katarzyna Staniecka, Natalia Siwecka, Agnieszka Bartoszek, Maciej Blaszczyk, Radek Maciej. Attitude and Behaviors towards SARS-C0V-2 Vaccination among Health Workers: A Cross- Sectional study from Poland; March 2021. D.O.I: org/10.3390/vaccines9030218.

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19 Vaccine in Southeast Asia: a Cross-Sectional Study in Indonesia. Front Public Health. 2020;8(381):1–8. doi:10.3389/fpubh.2020.00381

11.      Mohamed Saiful Islam, Abu Bakkar Siddique, Rejina Akter, Raffia Tasnim, Mohamed Safaet Hossain Sujan, Paul Ward, Mohamed Tajuddin Sikder. Knowledge, attitudes and perceptions towards COVID-19 vaccinations: A cross sectional community survey; February 2021. D.O.I: org/10.1101/2021.02.16.21251802.

12.      Seyi Samson Enitan, Adesola Oyekunle Oyekale, Richard Yomi Akele, Kayoda Abraham Olawuyi, Elisha Oluwatobi Olabisi, Amarachi Joy Nwankiti, Esther Ngozi, Adejumo, Comfort Bosede Enitan. Assessment of knowledge, perception and readiness of Nigerians to participate in the COVID-19 Vaccine trial; International Journal of Vaccines and Immunization Open Access Journal. July 2020. 4 (1).

 

 

Received on 24.06.2021                Modified on 07.07.2021

Accepted on 14.07.2021            ©A&V Publications All right reserved

Asian J. Nursing Education and Research. 2021; 11(4):537-540.

DOI: 10.52711/2349-2996.2021.00127